No breaks for red-hot Jets in wild Western conference

The Jets celebrate a goal during their win in Detroit Tuesday night. The Jets have had plenty to celebrate lately but also have a tendency to let complacency creep into their game when they taste success.

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They’ve scraped and clawed their way back to mediocrity, the NHL’s wacky version of .500.

But 20 points in 20 games for the Winnipeg Jets, with the help of four shootout wins, means second-last place in their new division, 11th place in the conference.

The last two seasons a mundane record like that would probably have the Jets in second place in the Southeast and sniffing around the playoff line.

Maybe that’s why it seemed whenever this team reached such not-so-lofty heights it began believing unrealistic things about itself, with predictable results.

This time, there should be no putting the cart before the horse, not with the view the Jets have, a bevy of western thoroughbreds still kicking up manure into their faces. Not even with a three-game win streak tucked neatly under their belts, going into a Friday encounter with an eastern Philly.

“The last few years we always hit .500 and then we did a step back,” goalie Ondrej Pavelec said, Thursday. “We